We Aren't Us Anymore
by XxMusicxKelseyxX
Summary: After the events of season one, the core four are in danger and must go into witness protection. Will that keep them safe, and will they lose themselves along the way?
1. White Room

Nothing. It was a completely blank room that the four teens sat in, awaiting news of their future.

Fred Andrews had been shot. It was set up to look like an armed robbery gone wrong, but that was just a red herring. It was a message. The Scooby gang unmasked the wrong ghost and his conspirators were going to make sure he was avenged. The shot was actually meant for Archie, but a (good) parent would do anything to keep their kid safe. That's what brought these high schoolers to this room, or what appeared to be a room.

Archie, Betty, Jughead, and Veronica.

Riverdale was no longer safe. _Pop's_ , the one innocent place in town, was tarnished with innocent blood and they were to be cast from the garden of Eden for solving a murder and procuring justice.

In the middle of the room was a folder.

Betty was the first to go to it, with Jughead right behind her, hand on her shoulder in support. She flipped it open and everyone held their breath.

This white room was in a bus that was taking them to New York to start their new lives in the witness protection program. The only reason they knew that was because it was on the first page.

There were booklets inside for everyone, with new names, backstories, and ways to alter appearances. They were told it had something to do with how easy it is to find people through video cameras and the internet these days. Apparently a while back two people ended up in the middle of a viral video when they were supposed to be in hiding, so a set of stylists were going to meet them in New York and then all their identifications would be made.

Archie Andrews was now Chad McMillain. Veronica Lodge was now Courtney Bates. Forsythe Jones was no longer allowed to be called Jughead but would be known as Cole Reeves. Lastly, Betty was renamed Diane Carter. They would be attending a fancy private school together so that they could stay in the dorms and avoid any suspicions since their parents were not deemed at-risk enough to spend government funds relocating them, plus both Jughead and Archie's fathers were in jail and in the hospital respectively.

Once out of the van, they were rushed into a room.

"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to cut your hair. It's easier to maintain a hairstyle than a dye job so we're gonna leave it at that, seeethearts." Despite being in New York, a city so big the four could easily get lost in it amongst the faces, the stylist had a Jersey accent.

Veronica was the first to go. Her hair was cut so that it was almost buzzed on one side and transitioned into a bob on the other. She was also instructed to stop wearing makeup. Without it, and this new hair cut, she looked like a different person. She bit her tongue to stop herself from screaming.

Next came Archie who got a very short buzz.

Betty's hair was cut into a short bob- too short for her signature ponytail.

When it was Jughead's turn, he handed Betty his hat.

"Keep it for me until we go home. It's not safe for me to carry it right now." He planted a kiss on her forehead. Finally he was facing the reality of the situation and plopped down on the barber seat. It was cut an inch short. There were no droopy curls hanging in front of his eyes and Betty was the first to break. She grabbed on to her boyfriend and cried. She cried about not being able to wear ponytails, she cried about not having long hair like Polly after spending so long growing it out, and she cried that her boyfriend didn't look like himself.

He cried, too. He was upset that he couldnt wear his beanie, even though he knew it would make him an easy target. He cried for his girlfriend who lost her ponytail that he knew brought her a sense of comfort. He cried, but he still thought she was absolutely beautiful. _Your new name should have been Angel._

Veronica cried because she had always taken great pride in his silky locks that were now on the floor. Without her hair, without her makeup, was she even Veronica Lodge? Her mother said they couldn't take that from her, but just as her mother did so did the government. She scoffed. Courtney Bates. A nobody with an edgy haircut.

Finally came Archie, who put up with thick red hair all summer and was now facing winter nearly bald. He cried mostly from shock. If he had gotten this haircut a month earlier, he would have been upset as it was one of his features that complimented regularly, but not he just didn't feel right. To add to it all, they were supposed to avoid being together in groups bigger than two. If they were all spotted together, there was a higher chance of recognition. The four of them promised they wouldn't let that tear them apart, but it was going to be a hard time in the mean time.

They were escorted to the Brooklyn 99 precinct to meet up with their case worker, Karen Haas, who was there on official business. It wasn't too far from New York. It would be the last time the Scooby gang would be all together for a very long time.

From there, they got their photos taken for IDs and were sent to campus in groups of two: first the girls, then the boys.

Betty, now Diane, knew she wouldn't be able to carry Jughead's, now Cole's, beanie around her for long but she clutched it to her chest for the rest of the day as a security blanket. Everything was changing, and it was terrifying. She was afraid of how this would impact her relationship as well as her friendships, both here and back home.

What she worried about the most, though, were those left back at home. Cheryl, Kevin, and Polly were considered low risk and so were not sent away for safety. Kevin was the Sheriff's son, so that allegedly came with protection. Cheryl was the daughter of one of the drug lords, so it was assumed she would be safe even though there was no love lost there and she had acted out a lot in the past few months. Finally came Polly. She was not directly involved and was too pregnant to travel so she stayed behind, but out of everyone she was the most vulnerable.

If the core four couldn't be found, "Diane" worried what might happen to her. On top of that, she was going to miss the twins being born and was banned from all contact. She wouldn't even so much as get a picture. It was ironic, though. Polly was the one who wanted to get away and yet she was the only who got left behind.


	2. Stories of Maladjusted Adolescents

What's in a name? Everything. You're assigned one at birth and you become it as much as it becomes you. Some people don't like their names and pick a different name. Some people go by middle names. In the end, we all have to identify with something.

Archie used to identify as a musician.

On day one of school, the freshly appointed Chad McMillain kept rapping his ringers against his thighs. Normally he would be able to go without music for this long but knowing he was banned from playing guitar or singing made it much harder for him. Much worse was the fact that this particular private school had a music program that was more influential than the one he was bribed with not too long ago. His music career could really take off here, but he was chained.

On his way to class, he passed by the music auditorium. He had struggled with the decision to go through this hall or take the long way around to avoid the sting of a path no longer available.

But it called to him, as a musician, and his heart was drumming to the beat, luring him inside like a moth to the flame. He watched as Aki Takenawa kicked up the bass and thrashed the cymbals. _Wow._ But then a thought occurred to him. He was only banned from singing and guitar. Drummers were often hidden in the back. He could do this, he _had_ to. He took a step forward and she raised her eyebrows at him. Without a word she stepped down and out of the room as she tossed the drumsticks to him. Instantly the late bell rang, but "Chad" no longer cared about going to class. He took out all his aggression on the synthetic skin.

"Cole" wondered where he was. The night before while they were playing video games, the one hobby too popular for it to matter if they kept it or not, Chad had joked that Reeves' new nickname should be Baghead after a series of giggles upon finding out that parts of Canada sold milk in bags instead of jugs. So Baghead was the new nickname behind closed doors. It didn't have the same ring to it, but he couldn't seem to shake it from Chad.

Within the first few minutes, he was too distracted to remember that Chad hadn't slipped into class late. If anyone in Riverdale had ever heard that Jughead Jones was sociable and popular, they would have laughed you out of town, but he was Cole now and for some reason people liked him and his onyx black tresses. It actually name Diane a bit jealous that women wanted to touch his hair so much.

These new friends were more than superficial, however. They drowned out their teacher to instead focus on topics of philosophy and human history.Even the more morbid parts of Reeves' personality went along fine in this new group, where he argued that all the killers on Orient Express should technically be charged with different misdemeanours and degrees of murder through the order they killed him in. Technically only the first and perhaps second killer could be charged with first degree murder. He wouldn't survive them all.

Chad wasn't the only one skipping. Diane anxiously took notes for two as Courtney Bates refused to come out of their shared dorm room. Courtney still had not come to terms with her new life. If her hair wasn't mostly cut off, she would have teared it out by now. But there she was, lying in bed, effectively dead to the world. She felt like she might as well be, but she was just being dramatic. It worried Diane, who worked twice as hard so try and keep her grades up. There was no cheerleading and no fashion shows. She was lost to herself and just wanted to go home. Surely returning to a tainted memory of her family would be better than being a ghost in her own skin. Unlike when she transferred to Riverdale, this was not going to be another chance to decide who she was- those decisions were made for her without her approval. She likes Courtney Bates as much as she likes Mathew McConaughey, which is to say not at all.

Instead of going to class she stole a device and googled her name on the internet. _Riverdale's Princess, Veronica Lodge, gone missing?_ She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs "I am here!" Her mantra from when her father went to jail stopped her from digging further, and she could barely read it with her blurry red eyes anyways.

Diane's anxiety was spiked. While taking notes, her pen pushed the words deep into three layers of paper. She was burdened with her worries, her boyfriend's worries, her roommate's worries, and the worries of her roommate skipping class since she valued education. Despite the signs, people flocked to her like they did to Cole and she had no problem finding a temporary lab partner until her friend was back in commission. She carried the weight of the world on her shoulders yet but that just attracted more people with more baggage and more favors. It was ingrained into her DNA as a natural people pleaser, though she was fighting against it so she could break free and not be used and then discarded like a tissue for those who were not her friend.

Later than day Cole got a text and then forwarded it to Chad.

 _Courtney messed up._


	3. Smells like Trouble

The three entered the room from different spots, using more caution than usual. Once inside, they saw Courtney moping in the corner while a young woman with curly dark locks looked at them like they ate the last donut in the staff room. Beside her was a brown haired guy who almost looked too happy to be there.

"Oh right, I'm detective Peralta and this is Diaz, no relation to Cameron." His goofy grin put the kids at ease while his partner levelled him out by reminding them to be on edge.

"There's a rule about social media. If you don't follow it, I won't hesitate to break your phones with my bare hands."

Chad took a step back.

"Relax you guys, Rosa wouldn't actually do that. Oh right, she would, but I wouldn't let her! Anyways, I'm not naming names but _somebody_ in this room was searching for their past and it got flagged by security so now we're going to have a little meeting about internet safety. Dang I wish Amy was here, she loves presentations."

"She does, but neither of you are intimidating enough to be taken seriously by a bunch of rebellious teens."

"Oh so doing what's right is rebellious?" Diane bit out.

"What you guys did was good, really good work. But you also undermined and disobeyed authority. So yes, you're a bunch of rebel badasses. That's not always a bad thing, but you seriously need to follow our rules. While you were out playing scooby doo you could have been seriously hurt or even killed. That's what we're here to prevent. You were sent to protection because there were targets on your head. I don't care what TMZ has to say about the disappearance of disgraced debutant Veronica Lodge, and neither should you."

 _Oh_. The three teens previously more confused than embarrassed glanced at their sheepish friend and understood.

"It was just one comment, you don't know what it's like." Her voice was quiet but harsh.

"Actually, we do. I've been in Witness Protection before and we had to do a similar thing for Diaz's ex-fiancé."

Rosa glared. "Even if I didn't understand, I don't care. Veronica Lodge is as good as dead. Courtney is here now so deal with it. Come on Jake, let's go, we have nothing left to say."

The door closed behind the two, leaving behind the four that weren't supposed to be together. They would be happy if their situation wasn't tense.

"How could you do this, knowing all four of us are at risk? This even puts more of a target on those back at home if they realize we're keeping tabs!" Cole slammed his arms on the table, letting his pent up frustrations bubble to the surface. Diane came up next to him and gently grabbed his arm.

"It was just a mistake Jug, I'm sure she won't do it again." His shoulders visibly relaxed.

Chad wandered over to Courtney and pulled her into a hug. "We're all struggling, you don't have to be alone."

They all left through the seperate doors they entered in, heading towards their last classes or Courtney's first.

The rest of the day was uneventful but at the end of it Diane had sent out a group text where the girls and the boys would skype in so they could all be together for a bit.

"I think, maybe, that this situation is hard enough without keeping us separated. Maybe the events of today wouldn't have happened if Ver-er-Courtney didn't feel so isolated. Our biggest strength is that we have each other, and we can make this work, we just have to try harder. I'll see if we can get video games or something. Maybe go back to childhood and play Mario online together. Super smash bros, Mario kart, or maybe just like wii bowling. This is supposed to be a good thing so we need to stop acting like this is a jail sentence." Their wifi was limited so her words kept cutting out but the boys on the other side still got the message.

They're still best friends after all. Within an hour, both rooms were fitted with a wii u and a wide variety of games. Courtney huffed, knowing that if her family's assets weren't still frozen and she wasn't in hiding they could have virtual reality games instead of playing a nearly obsolete system. But she was actually having a good time by the end of it. She even laughed at the ridiculous caricature named "Ron" Chad sent to her. She felt better about things, and that's what mattered. She made a few phone calls and arranged for Diane and herself to have a spa day after school tomorrow.

This was the fresh start she wanted so badly in Riverdale, where she felt falling back into old habits. This time she really _could_ be better. Courtney Bates could be the sweetheart of the school, all she would need is Diane's help.

A/N: sorry it's short. I've been struggling with this story. Life is still a mess over here, but I felt I should get something out and I figured my friend Ten would like the B-99 stuff in the first half. You can tell me if it's bad, but be gentle lol. Also bonus points to anyone appreciates my chapter title reference.


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